Seminar

The Era of Time Domain Radio Astronomy

Speaker:Assaf Horesh, Weizmann Institute

Date:April 14, 2016

Time:4:15 pm

Location:Pupin 1402

Host:Brian Metzger

A renaissance is taking place in optical and radio astronomy due to
application of rapidly evolving commercial technology. Moreover, by all
accounts (including Astro2010, The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal
Survey), this decade is regarded as the decade of time domain astronomy.
The dynamic radio sky is seen as a frontier area in astrophysics, ripe for
discovery. The synergy between optical and radio astronomy, such as the
joint VLA-PTF collaboration, have proved to be fruitful. This includes the
earliest radio observation of a Type Ia SN, systematic measurements of
circumstellar matter close to the progenitor of core-collapse SNe, and a
possible discovery of a new type of relativistic explosion.
Furthermore, radioobservatories are now taking the role of discovering
transients independently. A new generation of radio facilities is being
built at decameter and centimeter wavelengths and all of them have
identified the exploration of the time domain as Key Science. These
include, for example, the LOFAR Transient KSP, ASKAP VAST, MeerKAT
ThunderKAT, and WSRT APERTIF. In my talk I will discuss what we have
learned in recent years from observations of the dynamic radio sky and will
briefly present the future of time-domain radio astronomy.